Audible Books - When You Don't Have An Upstairs Closet

by Bert Carson
I don't know if home recording studios are on the verge of becoming the next new thing for indie writers or if it just seems that way because of my new obsession with the subject.
  
It began when I noticed the growing availability of Whispersync for voice books in the amazon.com store.  If you aren't familiar with that term, it refers to a Kindle book that in addition to digital format, is also available as an audible book that can be synced, between devices as the book is read.  In my case, that means I can listen to a book on a phone app as I'm driving, and as soon as I reach my destination, close the app, fire up my Kindle, and pick up where I left off.

If you are wondering what the title of this post has to do with that, let me explain.  Stephen Woodfin is a friend (in spite of his being a Texas A&M fan) and a fine author.  He is also owns a home recording studio where he recently finished recording his first Audible Audio Book, The Last One Chosen.  Today he published a blog, The Creation Of An Audio Book From Start To Finish, detailing his building the studio, assembling the gear, and navigating the learning curve.   Early in the post, Stephen mentions building his studio in an upstairs closet, and that's what the title of this post refers to.

A couple of months ago, Christina and I decided to follow Stephen down the path to Audible Books.  He has shared his adventure in our weekly conferences with Caleb Pirtle and him, his partner in Venture Galleries, but we were stymied when he selected a spare closet upstairs as the location for his studio.  We don't have an extra closet and further complicate matters, we don't have an upstairs.

It took a while, but we found an answer that works for us.  At the heart of the solution is the Porta Booth Pro, created by voice over artist Harlan Hogan.  Click the link to see a demonstration video. Though we're behind our Texas friends, and we're on a single-story, no closet, path, we share their objective, and, like Stephen, we will keep you posted on the path to Audible Books.